It's Coming!

Are you all as excited as I am? Tomorrow should be the Big Day for the unveiling of my new blog design. I am so thrilled I could bounce up and down on my bed for at least 10 minutes! (It'd probably break something, though, so I won't.)

I will tell you in advance that I know I will probably need to redo all of my posts to change them to black font. it'll take awhile, so try not to nag me about it, ok?

Today the kids went back to school (except for the ones that stay home for school!), and the hubby back to work. I have been looking forward to this day mainly because I have so much stuff to catch up on. I started jotting a list of things to do so that I could stop worrying about holding everything in my head, and it ended up being quite a lengthy list indeed. I feel like I have toiled away on it all day, and yet there is still a lot left to do. I guess that's normal for most women, but it would be nice if I felt like I had made more progress.

For those of you that love lists as much as I do, I wonder, do you all do that trick where you even add things to your list that you already did, just so that you can see it crossed off? :) I love doing that. Go to bathroom. Check! Take shower. Check! Get dressed. Check! Eat breakfast. Check! Inhale. Check! Exhale. Check! See how productive I have been??? See?! See?!

My internet connection was not working all weekend, so you have surely suffered without my daily blather about what I've been up to. I'll give you some highlights lest you miss out on something important:

On Friday night my daughter was recognized for an academic achievement at the local high school football game. It was just one child per grade that got this recognition, so that was pretty cool. We took all 6 of the kids since they have never been to a game with bleachers and lights and so forth. They were very excited, but we only managed to stay for an hour before leaving. Unfortunately (or not, since I truly dislike watching football) that meant we only saw 15 minutes of the actual game. Only one of our kids seemed to care, but his dad made it up to him by taking him off to Walmart so that he could buy his hunting license in preparation for the next day's hunting trip he had planned with our 7 year old son.

They got up at 3am in order to drive a couple hours to go sit in a tree for hours. Sadly, they saw no deer, so I imagine it was a rather disillusioning experience for my little boy. Good preparation for reality, though. Hunting and fishing seem to me to be 90% boredom for 10% excitement. They stumbled through the door at 11pm, although they had originally planned to stay overnight. My son was totally wiped out, and my husband missed me too much to stay away. :)

While the hunters were gone I went to my church's first annual appreciation dinner. It's basically a shin dig to recognize those that have helped out in doing things at the church. We enjoyed a lovely catered meal plus an entertaining program afterwards. There were some serious recognitions that featured funny gifts to go along with them, some photo and video montages from the year, plus a very special musical number. There is no way I can do it justice, but I'm going to try.

Our pastor is a nice guy, and comes across as very straight-laced, not anybody you would expect to be crazy, goofy, wild, or weird in any way. In fact, we went to church with him for over 10 years and I would never have guessed that there was any chance that he would do any of the nutty, hilarious things he has done this year. On Saturday night we were told that some of his relatives from the hills of Eastern Kentucky had come to sing for us. In walks our pastor and another guy from the church, dressed in overalls, white tank tops, bare feet, corn cob hats, and wearing long fake beards that make ZZ Top's look small. They spoke with a hick accent about their Great Aunt Jemima and how they were going to sing the song that was sung as she went forward and got saved. They proceeded to sing this song that speaks about needing to make a decision for Christ or else you'll burn in hell. It all rhymed and was very overdone so that it was quite funny. But the kicker was the chorus that featured the words, "Heaven, yes! Hell, no!" It was very, very funny. Or at least, for the type of people that go to my church it was.

Church on Sunday featured a sermon that was a great encouragement to me. The text from the Bible was:

1 Corinthians 9:
¹⁹ For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more.
²⁰ To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews; to those under the law I became as one under the law--though not being myself under the law--that I might win those under the law.
²¹ To those outside the law I became as one outside the law--not being without law toward God but under the law of Christ--that I might win those outside the law.
²² To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
²³ I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.


I actually have a pretty easy time appreciating where people are coming from, even when I don't have a lot in common with them. I'm very able to perceive other people's perspectives and to see things that I have in common with them, even when it might normally seem that there is too much different for there to be any common ground. At times I have wondered if I am too liberal minded or accepting because I can like people, appreciate people, even when they are so different from me. What this Bible passage and the talk that went with it did for me was let me know that what I have is a strength and that it has a really worthwhile purpose.

I love it when I found out that the way I am is not all a big mistake!

A lot of John Eldredge's books and the materials from Ransomed Heart ministries point this out, but it seems that for a lot of Christians, we are somehow conditioned to think that every urge that we have must be bad, and that what God wants from us is mainly stuff that we would rather not do. Eldredge would be more likely to say that God put your passions and desires in you to propell you toward the part you are to play in the bigger story of the world. I'm not sure that I understand or agree with everything in his books, but I think he has some important points that have been missed along the way.

Somewhere along the weekend I finished reading Diana Gabaldon's A Breath of Snow and Ashes....all 980 pages of it. What a fabulous book! I loved it. She's an amazing story teller. And now (sigh) I will wait along with all her other fans, for the next Claire and Jamie book.

if you haven't yet checked out the new addition to my blogroll, Audience of One, do go read. He is a great writer. A recent post talks about students he had that couldn't be turned around. It's really worth reading. I think this might be one of my favorite blogs ever.

Well, it's my bedtime so off I go, to dream sweet dreams of my fab-oo new look......giddy, giddy, giddy.....

It's fun to have something to be giddy about! (but it's almost killing me to have to post this in plain old black! gag!)